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"I wanted to go because I have an older brother and two older sisters who both competed and won the world championships in their respective levels of competition," he said.

In fact, his brother Stephen still competes in cage fighting and they have been training together for the past three and a half months to prepare for this fight.

"Because my brother is still competing I get in and spar him," he said. "He is heavyweight, bigger than me, so we have some pretty good battles."

He said they had been training morning and night and six days a week.

Asked if he was nervous to be taking on a man regarded as one of the toughest in rugby league, he said: "With my martial arts background it is more excitement than nervousness. When you step into the ring you have only got yourself to count on.

"That is a huge adrenalin rush for me because I know it is either me or him.

"At the end of the day one of us has to fall.

"If you look at it like that you have just got to put everything on the line."

While boxing and martial arts are different disciplines, Elliot said there are similarities.

"In terms of the basic skills it is similar to martial arts," Elliot explained.

"But I say to a lot of people when you do martial arts your first instinct is to throw a kick but you can't do that obviously in the boxing ring. But it has been really good."

The event will be televised in Australia on Main Event and also feature NRL stars Greg Bird, Willie Mason and Manu Vatuvei.

Every fight on the card also appears to be a well-matched contest.

Asked if international pride was a motivation for the Kiwis, Elliot said: "I don't know if it is so much that, I just think it is personal pride.

"You are putting yourself and your name out there in front of hundreds of thousands of people on TV in New Zealand and Australia so you have to put your best foot forward and definitely give it a good crack."

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